Write it down: why you should keep a running journal

HARUKI Murakami ran 300 kilometers in July 2005. In his book “What I Talk About When I Talk About Running,” the Japanese writer said it rained two days that month and he was on the road for another two days, while there were a few days when “the weather was too muggy and hot to run.”

In the book, a running journal that serves as memoir, Murakami writes about his runs, including his preparation for the 2005 New York Marathon, his 100-kilometer ultra-marathon and his running, in reverse, of the original marathon route—from Athens to Marathon. The book provides details only hardcore runners and Murakami die-hard fans would appreciate.

Training journal

TRAINING JOURNALS help you keep track of your progress and guard against doing too much, too soon in training. (Photo above was taken last year, that's why the journal is for 2010) CLICK ON PHOTO TO ENLARGE.

Not everyone can have his or her running journal published as a book, even in today’s do-it-yourself publishing and digital formats. Not all runners keep track of training minutiae or obsess over time, distance and pace. But all regular runners, however, should take the effort to record their runs and keep a running journal.

Running journals help people keep track of their training progress to guard against a common cause of injury: doing too much too soon. Many running experts advise people to increase either their mileage or intensity by not more than 10 percent a week. If your total mileage last week was 30 kilometers, you should do no more than 33 kilometers this week.

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Quit smoking; start Ungo Running

Stop smoking, start running. That’s the theme of tomorrow night’s Ungo Friday Night Run that will start at The Active Zone in Ayala Center Cebu.

STOP SMOKING, START RUNNING. Running is one of the best ways to help you quit smoking.

Organizers are inviting non-runners, newbies, seasoned runners and smokers who’ve long wanted to quit the habit to attend the event, which is free and open to everyone.

The event is organized by the Ungo Runners, a group that runs every Friday night on the streets of Cebu City.

Businessman and runner Richard Ho is scheduled to talk about his personal experience in kicking a smoking habit and starting and keeping a running habit. Dr. John Clifford Aranas, an ultra-marathoner, will talk about the clinical aspect of smoking.

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The most powerful running organ

IN July 2005, ultra-running god Scott Jurek collapsed by the side of the road in Badwater Basin in California’s Death Valley. He was, according to the seminal running book “Born to Run,” “lying in his own sweat and spittle,” 60 miles (96.5 kilometers) into the 135-mile Badwater Ultramarathon.

Badwater is the world’s toughest race. The ultramarathon passes through Highway 190, which might as well be the Highway to Hell. The road gets so hot runners have to stay on the white stripe to prevent their shoes’ soles from melting.

SCOTT JUREK with Tarahumara runner Arnulfo Quimare in a race chronicled in the book "Born to Run." Jurek won the 2005 Badwater Ultramarathon despite collapsing on Mile 60. CLICK TO ENLARGE. (FROM THE FLICKR PHOTO PAGE OF WOLF GANG)

SCOTT JUREK with Tarahumara runner Arnulfo Quimare in a race chronicled in the book "Born to Run." Jurek won the 2005 Badwater Ultramarathon despite collapsing on Mile 60. CLICK TO ENLARGE. (FROM THE FLICKR PHOTO PAGE OF WOLF GANG)

On mile 60 in that year’s race, Jurek collapsed, vomiting and shaky, after chasing the early leaders. Yet his wife and his friends, who served as his crew, let him be. They didn’t try to help him get up. “They knew there was no voice in the world more persuasive than the one inside Scott’s own mind,” Christopher McDougall said in Born To Run.

The book then documented Jurek’s internal dialogue:

“There’s no way, Scott told himself. You’re done. You’d have to do something totally sick to win this thing now.

Sick like what?

Like starting all over again. Like pretending you just woke up from a great night’s sleep and the race hasn’t even started yet. You’d have to run that next 80 miles as fast as you’ve ever run 80 miles in your life.”

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Make time for running

THE biggest obstacle to running among workers holding regular hours is the seeming lack of time for the sport.

“I want to run to stay fit but I’m too busy with work. I barely even have time for my family,” an acquaintance told me a couple of months ago when our conversation inevitably turned to the fastest growing sport in the country.

GO OUT THE DOOR AND RUN! “Consistency requires discipline,” Bob Glover and Shelly–Lynn Florence Glover say in The Competitive Runner’s Handbook, “Force yourself out the door.” (FROM THE FLICKR ACCOUNT OF INDUSTRY IS VIRTUE)

Bob Glover and Shelly–Lynn Florence Glover have an emphatic advice in The Competitive Runner’s Handbook, “Consistency requires discipline. Force yourself out the door.”

Dr. Raymund “Reel Runner” Bontol is more blunt, “MAKE TIME!”

Cebu Maternity Hospital obstetrics resident Dr. Cecillie Milan goes on a 24-hour duty every three days.

Yet she makes it a point to run at least an hour three times a week.

She ran 21 kilometers in The Great Lapu-Lapu Run and in the Mandaue City race earlier this month before reporting for 24-hour hospital duty.

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How to measure running routes using online tools

“WAS that really 10 kilometers?” the girl in Nike LunarLites asked a male runner trying to catch his breath, “it felt like it wouldn’t end.”

The girl ran about 11 kilometers in what seemed to be her first 10K.

In the absence of a local certification body, you just take organizers’ word that their race routes really are the distances that they announce these to be.


MEASURING ROUTES WITH GOOGLE MAPS. Google Maps allows you to draw a line on its street, satellite and terrain maps to measure distances. CLICK ON PHOTO ABOVE TO VIEW LARGER IMAGE.

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